Afghan Folktales

ProMosaik Children is an initiative of ProMosaik, founded by Milena Aziza Rampoldi in Istanbul in 2019. The editor-in-chief, Maria Traoré, translator and teacher, collaborates with ProMosaik Children by publishing children’s books to promote intercultural dialogue. In this booklet you can find a selection of fairy tales from Afghanistan originally written in Dari and introduced in English. They all come from the Herat region. The city of Herat, located in the Western Afghanistan, became the capital of the Timurid Empire during the 15th century and a world-renowned center for Persian miniature painting, poetry, and architecture. The first objective of these tales is the moral teaching of values and wisdom anchored in the Persian-Khorasani culture. In the tale „THE OLD COW SHEPHERD AND HIS SON” for example the value is family loyalty while in “THE SMART FELLOW AND THE UNJUST CLERGYMAN” the opposition between justice and hypocrisy/corruption is shown. The objective pursued by ProMosaik Children is the diffusion of tales from all over the world in Europe. Translation is very important in this project as it builds bridges between languages, cultures, and people.Promosaik Children is in favour of equal opportunities for children: every child has the right to a book!